Innovation Toolbox

The Balanced Scorecard

The Balanced Scorecard is a tool used during the Guided Self-Assessment exercise. It is completed through consultation of the I-hub with its internal stakeholders, who provide evidence for the selected indicators of Innovation performance across four dimensions of innovation:

(1) Leadership and Organizational Practices, (2) Teaching and Learning Processes; (3) Products and Services and (4) Skills and Innovation Ecosystem.

Leadership and Organizational Practices

This dimension captures the demonstrated transformation in the physical and behavioural aspects in an institutional setting. An innovation culture welcomes new ways of thinking and applying them to produce results. In this setting, innovation can come not only from the top leadership but is also nurtured from the group up.

Teaching and learning Processes

This dimension allows institutions to institute transformative teaching and learning, and change through adoption of new approaches or methods, adaptation of existing approaches and creation of new approaches that make use of different tools, techniques, etc. Often, they are unseen processes (managerial, pedagogical, relational) and take place with support from internal and external stakeholders in a given eco-system.

Products and Services

Institutional innovation at the product/services level is what comes out as improved curricula, methodologies, pedagogical tools and infrastructure. The improvement is significant enough whereby characteristics or attributes of goods or services (e.g., curriculum content) are changed and their functionality is increased; purpose is considered to be at higher level.

Skills and Innovation Ecosystem

This dimension provides structure, engagement and connectivity of institutions with the different actors and players in an institutional environment. Innovation activities are seen to take place much closer to the market and are triggered or perpetuated by entities that can respond and act fast. TVET institutions are best placed to identify the actors in their specific ecosystem and engage them to support the innovation agenda.

Skills and Innovation Ecosystem Map

The Skills and Innovation Ecosystem Map is a tool which is intended as a resource to support the i-hubs in the strategic management of cooperation with key actors, networks and assets from the skills and innovation ecosystem. It can be adapted for use and further developed by I-hubs according to their context.

The tool is designed to map the key stakeholders in the Skills and Innovation Ecosystem, and to suggest possible courses of action towards them through the Innovation Action Plan and the Innovative Practice. The long-term goal is to help the TVET Institutions to engage with stakeholders strategically and systematically, in order to drive innovation and provide innovative skills needed in the Skills and Innovation Ecosystem.